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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25812763">In which Fire Lord Azula finds her brother a wife</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Frankensteins_Monster/pseuds/Frankensteins_Monster'>Frankensteins_Monster</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Avatar: The Last Airbender</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Arranged Marriage, Domestic Fluff, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Internalized Homophobia, M/M, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Zutara fans might not like this</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 11:56:17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,936</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25812763</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Frankensteins_Monster/pseuds/Frankensteins_Monster</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>In a world where Sokka and Katara never accompanied Aang on his journey, instead staying to protect their ever dwindling tribe, Aang still managed to escape the fire nation again and again, but never really held his own in his attempts to fight back.</p><p>Zuko returned to his kingdom, a prince, after the betrayal of his uncle in the earth kingdom. Azula gained power as the new Fire Lord, while Ozai left to become the Phoenix King.</p><p>This new, more powerful Fire Nation sent its armies further, collecting prisoners of war from dissonant kingdoms all across the land, including the Southern Water Tribe. One of those prisoners, was Katara.</p><p>Sokka sneaks into the Fire Nation prison to rescue his sister, but ends up spending a lot more time with Zuko than he bargained for.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Sokka &amp; Zuko (Avatar), Sokka/Zuko (Avatar)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>65</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. To My Dearest Brother</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Dearest Brother<br/>As much as you may protest against it, I and the others believe that it is about time that you found yourself a wife. So I’ve saved you the trouble, and picked out one for you.<br/>We’ve captured some women from the Southern Water Tribe, and I’ve picked out one to be your bride! Aren’t you lucky. Just one look and I knew she was perfect for you!<br/>Fire Lord Azula</p><p>Zuko scrunched the letter into a tight ball and set it alight. He knew no response he could make would matter against the word of His Sister, the Fire Lord.</p><p>If she wanted him to marry, he would marry. He supposed he should just be grateful she didn’t want to see him die. That was the inescapable hell he had willingly lept into. He cursed his own foolishness for what felt like the thousandth time.</p><p>He wanted to hope that she had been merciful… but he knew better than that. He already knew that marriage to a woman who is an outsider would make him seem even more of a joke than he already appeared to the people of the fire nation. But he had a hunch that there was something more to this, perhaps another layer of humiliation. The words “I knew she was perfect for you”… they filled him with a bitter sense of foreboding.</p><p>He readied himself for dinner, every night a royal banquet. And he sat down at his usual chair, waiting for food to be served, when suddenly Azula stood before him. He lowered his head, having adopted the same subservience expected of every member of court. Zuko was angry, but he still bowed his head.</p><p>“Raise your head, brother.” Azula commanded, and he did so.</p><p>In front of Azula, held tightly by the shoulders in a grip which Zuko knew must be bruising, stood a tall woman clad from head to toe in thick, wintry clothing. Her head was mostly covered by a hood, but he could see how afraid she was from the way she held herself.</p><p>“This girl will be your new wife!” She cried.</p><p>Zuko saw the girl’s eyes widen in shock, and what he hoped wasn’t horror. I mean, he didn’t want to marry her either, but the prospect wasn’t horrifying. He must seem monstrous in her eyes, he feared.</p><p>“Umm… ah. Hello.” He stammered, suddenly nervous, although not in *that* kind of way.</p><p>But the girl didn’t say anything, merely looking around in a panic, like she was looking for the nearest window to jump out of. She wasn’t even meeting his eye.</p><p>“Don’t worry, brother. You’ll get plenty of chances to get to know each other better. You’re going to be living together after all. You won’t ever have to leave each other’s side!”</p><p>Zuko suppressed a sudden tirade of outrage by biting his lip, before noticing the girl looked even worse than he did, like she might faint.</p><p>He stepped out and caught her in his arms before she had a chance to fall.</p><p>“Haha!” Azula snickered. “I’m glad to see that you’re already getting along so well, already.”</p><p>Zuko’s eyes went wide as he realised. Azula only smiled wider.</p><p>He opened his mouth to cry out in anger, but the words of disrespect wisely stayed caught in his throat.</p><p>“It really is a perfect match.” She said, unable to suppress her laughter.</p><p>Zuko carried the girl back to his room, and laid her on his bed, sitting himself on the floor.</p><p>“My sister really does have a sick sense of humour.” He said out loud.</p><p>“You can take off the hood and tell me who you really are.”</p><p>The fakest falsetto voice Zuko had ever heard started stammering. “Uhh, I’m nobody really… Just an ordinary girl from the Water Tribe. Really ugly too, so it’s best for us both if I leave the hood on. Haha ha.”</p><p>“Just do it already.”</p><p>Hesitantly, the hood came off.</p><p>He was face to face with a man, as he had expected.</p><p>“I’m Sokka, from the Southern Water Tribe.” He said. “And I’m a guy, so don’t go all wedding night on me!”</p><p>“I wasn’t planning on it.” Zuko said, unimpressed.</p><p>“Well, good.” Sokka said, before his eyes unfocused and he flopped back onto the bed.</p><p>“Wait… what’s… urgh…” Sokka moaned in confusion.</p><p>Zuko pressed his hand against Sokka’s forehead. “You’ve got a fever, you’re burning up.”</p><p>“Heh heh. Burning up. What did the firebender say to the water tribesman?” Sokka laughed, dazed.</p><p>“You’re burning… up.” Sokka either fell asleep or passed out again.</p><p> </p><p>When he woke up again, he had a wet towel across his forehead.</p><p>Zuko removed the towel, and dipped it in a bowl of water for what must have been the fiftieth time.</p><p>Half awake, Sokka started to ramble again. “Good Sparky. Nice Sparky! Taking care of Sokk-Ahh!”</p><p>Sokka cried out when Zuko, rather than squeezing the excess water from the towel, just dropped it onto his face.</p><p>He raised his arms, which were shaking a little from the fever, and folded the towel up and off his face, now fully awake.</p><p>“Did my sister capture you just to humiliate me?” Zuko asked.</p><p>“Uhh, it’s kind of a long story…”</p><p>Zuko stared at him unflinchingly, and tapped one foot on the ground.</p><p>“I’m waiting.”</p><p>Sokka’s expression changed to one of panic. His mouth gaped open and closed.</p><p>“I wonder if the guards are still nearby.” Zuko stood up and approached the door. </p><p>Sokka shook his head and waved his hands frantically. “Wait, don’t!”</p><p>Zuko turned to face Sokka once more.</p><p>“I’m here to rescue my sister. She was captured and when I snuck into the prison to rescue her, I was almost immediately dragged off to see you.”</p><p>“I see.”</p><p>There was a moment of silence as the two stood there motionless.</p><p>“You’re not going to have me locked up, or kill me?” Sokka asked hesitantly.</p><p>“Not for the moment.” Zuko was certain Azula had something up her sleeve, and he feared doing such a thing would play right into her hands, but he didn’t think it was best to let this Sokka know that.</p><p>“Why not?” He asked.</p><p>“Listen.” Zuko said. “I can help you free your sister, but if I do that you will have to stay here.”</p><p>“You would do that?”</p><p>“Yes.”</p><p>“But if you’d be willing to help me free a prisoner, then why can’t I leave too?”</p><p>“Because no one goes against Fire Lord Azula’s orders. Not even me.”</p><p>Sokka looked up at Zuko from the bed.</p><p>“Is that why you’re helping me?”</p><p>Zuko turned sharply towards his writing desk without a word, and engrossed himself in some sort of study. Sokka watched him expectantly for a moment, before yawning and rolling over.</p><p>“I haven’t slept in forever.”</p><p>“You were just sleeping!” Zuko replied, breaking his own concentration through frustration.</p><p>“Passing out does not count as sleeping. Technically.” Sokka corrected him.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Night Falls</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Get off my bed!” Zuko hissed through his teeth. “You’re fine now, and I’m going to sleep.”</p><p>“Well where’s my bed?” Sokka asked.</p><p>“You don’t get a bed! You’re sleeping on the floor.”</p><p>“I’m not sleeping on the floor! This is the first time I’ve slept on an actual bed and I’m not going back to the old ways! I’ve become accustomed to a certain standard of living and I’m…”</p><p>Zuko grabs him and tries to physically pull him off the bed, but Sokka accidentally ends up pulling Zuko over on top of him.</p><p>“This is weird…” Sokka says, looking away shyly.</p><p>“You’re the one who did this!” Zuko yells.</p><p>For a moment they were a wriggling mess of angry flailing about, until Zuko calmed down a little.</p><p>“Let’s just sleep back to back.” Zuko says.</p><p>“Alright.” Sokka says.</p><p>“Hey, you’re a prince, right? Why can’t you just ask for another bed?”</p><p>“Given that we’re already technically engaged… we are supposed to share a bed. It would look suspicious if I asked for another one.” Said Zuko, miserably.</p><p>They fell asleep in silence.</p><p>When Zuko woke up the next morning he woke up to Sokka, who had turned around in the night and was now gripping onto him tightly. Groggy and half asleep he didn’t even feel angry. It was almost nice.</p><p>When Sokka woke up that morning, he was horrified to see that he and Zuko now seemed to be in some loving embrace. Yet he didn’t push him away. It was strange, but it was comforting too.</p><p>When they both awoke for the second time that morning, they were nose to nose, each gripping onto each other just as much as the other. They both blinked groggily for a moment, before rolling away from each other in opposite directions, Sokka with so much force that he fell off his side of the bed with a strangled yelp. Zuko sat up, hair sticking up in all directions, looking entirely miserable.</p><p>“You are not to tell anyone of this.” He said to Sokka as he lay on the floor. “Ever.”</p><p>“Tell me about it.” Sokka moaned from the floor.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. The Power of Bending</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“So what’s it like, being a bender?” Sokka asked.</p><p>“You’re not a waterbender?”</p><p>“I’m not a bender at all. I’m a totally normal, non-magical guy.”</p><p>“It’s not really magic…”</p><p>“Yes, yes. I’ve heard that all before. But what does it feel like?”</p><p>Zuko thought for a moment. He’d never really thought about what it would be like, not to be able to bend.</p><p>“I guess… it’s just having all this heat stored up inside, and then pushing it out of your body. It runs from your heart all the way through to the tips of your fingers, or your feet. Then you just… let it out.”</p><p>Sokka listened patiently. “It sounds nice. I kinda wish I could do that too.”</p><p>“Well that’s just firebending, I don’t know what it feels like to bend the other elements… obviously.” Zuko said awkwardly, realising how dumb he sounded explaining the obvious. Clearly Sokka already knew he wasn’t the Avatar.</p><p>Sokka just nodded. “In my family, there were a lot of waterbenders. Almost all of them were, everyone except for my dad. When my sister learned to waterbend, I was so excited for her. And then I tried, and tried and tried and just kept on trying. For months. Eventually I gave up… but I remember being so angry at my dad. I told him it was all his fault, that I was just useless, and then I broke down crying.”</p><p>Zuko looked into Sokka’s eyes with an almost fearful expression. “What… what happened then?”</p><p>“He gave me this boomerang!” Sokka announced, searching through his clothes for something.</p><p>Zuko raised an eyebrow, he couldn’t see a boomerang.</p><p>“Wait… Hold on… Almost…”</p><p>“…Got it!” Finally, Sokka produced a boomerang.</p><p>“I’m surprised that wasn’t taken away when you first arrived here.”</p><p>“Well, you remember. Technically I’m an uninvited prisoner.”</p><p>“So… why did your father give you a boomerang?”</p><p>“Well he said, ‘Son. You don’t need to be a bender to be useful. Look at me, I’m the chief of our tribe, and do you think they respect me any less because I can’t bend. You’ve got to focus on what’s up here…’” Sokka tapped his temple. “’And what’s in here.’” He placed his hand over his heart.</p><p>“But what about the boomerang?” Zuko asked.</p><p>“He said it was so I could learn to fight like a real warrior. Like a man. Like him.” Sokka suddenly looked very sad.</p><p>He looked down at the floor with misty eyes. “I’m sorry. I’ve failed you, dad.”</p><p>Zuko watched with an expression somewhere between astonishment, confusion and pity.</p><p>“I couldn’t stop them. I let them take her. I let them take everyone.” He sniffed hard. “I am useless.”</p><p>“Would you like some tea?” Zuko asked, suddenly.</p><p>Sokka sniffed a few more times. “Yes… please.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Seeking Forgiveness</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“So when are we going to rescue my sister?” Sokka inquired impatiently.</p><p>“We’re going to wait until after you’ve recovered.” Zuko replied.</p><p>“But I’m all better now. As fit as a-“ Sokka stood up on shaky legs, sweat beading across his brow. “-fiddle.”</p><p>“We’re going to wait, Stoky. Just in case things go wrong... we both need to be in fighting shape.”</p><p>“Stoky?”</p><p>“Isn’t that your name?”</p><p>“My name is Sok-ka! Sok-ka!”</p><p>There was a bit of awkward silence.</p><p>“There’s one more thing I’ve got to do before I can rescue your sister.”</p><p>“What is it?”</p><p>Zuko looked away at that, embarrassed to meet Sokka’s eyes. “I… I must apologise to someone.”</p><p>Zuko dismissed the guard, and went to stand before his uncle’s cell.</p><p>For a while he just stood there looking at his uncle, turned away from him.</p><p>Slowly he sank to his knees and prostrated himself on the floor.</p><p>“I am so sorry uncle.” He said, and though his face wasn’t visible, it sounded like he could be crying.</p><p>“I am so sorry that I betrayed you.”</p><p>“I was wrong.” He whispered quietly. “But I can fix this… I will fix this, I promise you, uncle.”</p><p>“Get up, Zuko.” Iroh said gently, Zuko lifted his head enough to see that Iroh had finally turned to face him. “Such behaviour is not befitting of a prince.”</p><p>“I don’t think I want to be what is befitting of a prince anymore.”</p><p>“Is that so?”</p><p>“It is.”</p><p>…</p><p>“And what has brought about this sudden change of heart?”</p><p>“…It’s a long story.” Zuko said, and when he realised his uncle was waiting for him to tell it, he continued.” I’m making plans to break a Water Tribe girl out of one of our prisons.”</p><p>“Oh-ho-ho! So that’s what’s come over you!”</p><p>Zuko’s skin quickly flushed. “Wait… that’s not…”</p><p>“So who is the lucky lady?”</p><p>“I don’t know!”</p><p>“You don’t know? I am afraid I do not understand.”</p><p>“Sokka asked me to free some Water Tribe girl, but I don’t know her name yet.”</p><p>“Oh, so it’s this Sokka I have to thank-“</p><p>“No! Nope. Definitely not, uncle. You are barking up the wrong tree with that one.”</p><p>Iroh laughed heartily.</p><p>“Now before you go, nephew. I was wondering if you could arrange for me to get some Jasmine tea? The nights here get so cold…”</p><p>“Of course, uncle.” Zuko said with a smile.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. The Rescue Mission</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I'm sorry that it's such a short chapter this time, but it is a big one plot-wise!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Sokka. They took mom’s necklace.” Katara said in a small and pitiful voice through her tears.</p><p>Sokka grabbed his boomerang from behind his back and held it out to her. “Look, I know it’s no replacement for mom’s necklace. But I’ll give you my boomerang, as a reminder of the old days.”</p><p>Katara looked up at him. “Your boomerang? I can’t take your…”</p><p>“I won’t need it anymore.” Sokka whispered. “So please just take it, to remember me by. To remember me and dad and mom.”</p><p>She took the boomerang, but her wide eyes screamed with emotion. “No. No, No! You’re not staying here. You’re not leaving me too.”</p><p>Sokka wrapped her in a tight hug. “I don’t want to, but I have to. Please don’t hate me, Katara.”</p><p>“I could never hate you.” Katara said. “I could never hate you…”</p><p>The hug ended and she stepped back from Sokka, and turned towards Zuko. “But I do hate you.” She said this loudly, in a voice the guards might overhear.</p><p>Sokka reached out to Katara. “Katara, don’t!”</p><p>“You’ve taken everything from me! My mother, my father, my brother. I have nothing left!”</p><p>“Shh!” Sokka urged.</p><p>“You’re a monster. You’re a monster and it should be your family who’s gone instead of mine. I hope you lose everything!”</p><p>“Katara!”</p><p>“You’d better get out of here you little water rat! Before I change my mind.” Zuko said angrily, heat radiating from him.</p><p>As she started to leave, a flicker of flame curled into the air from Zuko’s mouth. </p><p>“Yeah, that’s what I thought.” She said before she left for good.</p><p>Once she was gone, Sokka turned to Zuko. “I’m sorry…”</p><p>“We should get back quickly, before someone finds us out here.”</p><p>“Uhh, yeah.” Sokka said, surprised Zuko could turn it off so quickly.</p><p>As soon as Sokka closed the door to their room, he felt a pair of arms around him.</p><p>“Zuko?” He asked, confused.</p><p>But Zuko didn’t answer, his face was buried in the hood of Sokka’s coat.</p><p>And they stayed like that for two, maybe three minutes. After which, Zuko let go without a word and went to lie in his bed, facing the wall.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Memories and Truth</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>There was something off about Zuko over the next few days. He was listless and morose. Sokka had even taken to trying to annoy Zuko, just to see if he could get a reaction out of him. It seemed like Katara’s words had hurt him a lot, and Sokka worried about that. Zuko may be fire nation, but he had helped free Katara. That wasn’t nothing, at least not to Sokka. To Sokka, Katara was everything.</p><p>So he felt bad that Katara’s words had clearly wounded Zuko. But admittedly, Sokka knew how his sister felt too. The sheer hatred at these people who had dismantled his family, and perhaps the one obstacle in its path from becoming whole again. But he didn’t have it within himself to hate them, such things had never come naturally to Sokka.</p><p>“Hey, Zuko.” He asked one morning, when Zuko had been staring at the first page of a book for a while without turning it. “Can you tell me about your family?”</p><p>Zuko snapped the book shut and turned around, as if he was just looking for someone to lash out at. “And why on earth would I talk to you about that?” He spat.</p><p>“I’ve been cooped up in here for ages.” Sokka said. “I’m bored. Thought we’d swap some stories, is all.”</p><p>Zuko picked up another book that had been laying on his desk, still in a paper bag. “You wanna know about my family? Just pick up a book!” He tossed it in Sokka’s general direction. Then he stormed out of the room and slammed the door.</p><p>Sokka sighed and peeked into the bag. The book was titled “A Recent History of the Fire Nation’s Greatest Family. With the subtitle. “Before and After the Phoenix King.” It was quite new.</p><p>He flipped through the book, and stopped on a photo of a young Zuko of around six or seven, standing next to a little girl. The caption said, ‘Fire Lord Azula and her older brother Zuko.’ He noticed that Zuko didn’t have his scar back then.</p><p>There was a paragraph of text underneath. ‘It was expected by many that Zuko would be chosen as Ozai’s sucessor. However, upon showing great cowardice of character, Zuko was quickly understood by the Fire Nation as being unfit to take his place. Even at the tender age of five, Azula was a prodigy, in martial arts, bending, and intellect…'</p><p>Sokka flipped through the many family photographs and portraits included in the book. But it was unusual, he noticed, that not one of them included Zuko’s mother. He couldn’t help but wonder why.</p><p>As the Zuko and Azula in the book got older, Sokka started to feel a strange sense of unease. Azula always quite pleased with herself, but Zuko’s expressions were so… blank. And then it appeared. Zuko’s scar. And Zuko’s expressions were no longer blank. He looked so angry, that it almost made Sokka shudder to look at him. He could have sworn that glare itself could have set the pages of the book on fire.</p><p>He snapped the book shut as Zuko came through the door.</p><p>“You actually read it.” Zuko said in disbelief.</p><p>“Just skimmed through.” Sokka said. “I mostly looked at the pictures, the text itself was pretty boring.”</p><p>Zuko looked hard at him, then agreed solemnly. “Yeah, boring.”</p><p>Sokka grinned and opened the book back up. “Except for this! Stories of Baby Zuko at his first birthday party! According to this lady-“ He pointed at the page. “-and I quote, ‘You were just the cutest widdle munchkin she ever did see!’” Then he turned the book around to show off a picture of a sleeping baby with a festive party hat strapped to his head.</p><p>Zuko flushed angrily, but then his eyes settled on the picture, and his expression changed. He grabbed the book from Sokka and stared at the picture. Sokka moved around to see what Zuko was looking at. It seemed like he was staring at one of the women in the background. Only part of her face could be seen though, because someone had walked past her at the moment the photo was taken.</p><p>She sort of looked like Zuko. Could that be Zuko’s mom?</p><p>“She’s beautiful.” Sokka said, and Zuko snapped the book shut. “Yeah, she was.”</p><p>“I’m sorry.” Sokka said.</p><p>“It’s got nothing to do with you.” Zuko said, and his voice was cold.</p><p>All of sudden Sokka felt bad. “I miss my mom too.” He said.</p><p>“I’m sorry.” Zuko said.</p><p>“It’s got noth-“ Sokka paused. He was going to throw Zuko’s words back into his face without really thinking about it. The in a gentler tone he said, “It’s got nothing to do with you.”</p><p>Zuko looked into his eyes briefly and then looked away again as if it had hurt him to do so. “How do you know that? I could have been involved.”</p><p>“You would have been, like ten years old, first of all.” Sokka mentioned. “But aside from that… I can’t explain it, I just know you weren’t.”</p><p>“How do you know I wouldn’t have, given the chance?”</p><p>Sokka smiled brightly. “I got a really good feel for people. Always have. And I know you’re not such a bad guy, deep down.”</p><p>Zuko looked over at Sokka with a grimace, like he was something distasteful, before his expression softened.</p><p>“You know, Stoky-”</p><p>“Sokka.” Sokka corrected, even though he was pretty sure that Zuko was just teasing him, and didn’t actually forget his name this time.</p><p>“Whatever. But… I was thinking of running away.”</p><p>“Running away from your own kingdom?”</p><p>“Running away from my own humiliation.” Zuko said. “I can tell that my sister has something awful planned for me. And that way you’d also get to be free. And my Uncle as well. We’d hide out in the Earth Kingdom, start a tea shop. You could finally leave and be with your sister. I was thinking, that maybe…”</p><p>Sokka shook his head. “But wouldn’t you be in danger then? If you defected?”</p><p>“Who cares?” Zuko asked. “I’m sick of being a coward.”</p><p>A line from the book popped into Sokka’s head. ‘However, upon showing great cowardice of character, Zuko was quickly understood by the Fire Nation as being unfit to take his place.’</p><p>“You’re not a coward, Zuko.” Sokka said.</p><p>Zuko looked at him like he’d grown a second head.</p><p>“You helped my sister escape even though you could have easily done nothing. No man who helps people is a coward, my dad told me that.”</p><p>Zuko relaxed. He unclenched his teeth and gently smiled. He looked into Sokka's eyes for a moment, as if he was seeing them for the first time. Then he chuckled. “I reckon your father and my uncle would get along famously.”</p><p>"If he's anything like my dad, then he's a great guy." Sokka said.</p><p>"He is." Zuko said. "And you are too. I... underestimated you, Sokka. But you're a great man."</p><p>Sokka stared at Zuko open mouthed. "Thanks." He finally said, both touched and honestly stunned by Zuko's words.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>If you like what I do here you can follow me on twitter @Writer_Monster or on my tumblr where I’m writer-monster</p></blockquote></div></div>
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